Keller will make his Cactus League debut Friday against the Angels, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports.
After a surprisingly productive season as a Rule 5 pick in 2018, Keller is assured a rotation spot with the Royals heading into the upcoming campaign. The right-hander turned in a stellar 3.28 ERA in his 20 starts, but relied mostly on inducing weak contact rather than whiffing batters (16.8 strikeout percentage). Keller at least showed some notable improvement in making bats miss over the final month of the season, when he posted an 11.6 percent swinging-strike rate. That might give him some nascent sleeper potential heading into 2019.